Shanthie Mariet D’Souza (Founder & Executive Director)
Dr. Shanthie Mariet D’Souza is a scholar, teacher, guide, author, consultant, and researcher with a specialization in international relations and more than two decades of experience working in think tanks, universities, governmental and non-governmental sectors in Asia, North America, Australia, and Europe. She is a Senior Research Fellow, School of Public Policy, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA; a Visiting Faculty & Member of the Research & Advisory Committee, Naval War College, Goa; Research Fellow at WeltTrends-Institut für Internationale Politik, Potsdam, Germany; Editorial board member of Small Wars & Insurgencies (Routledge: UK) and Defence and Diplomacy Journal, a flagship journal of Centre for Air Power Studies, New Delhi; Mentor, Network for Advanced Study of Pakistan (NASP) Fellowship, Takshashila Institution, Bengaluru; an adviser for Independent Conflict Research and Analysis, London; an Expert at Duco , a Senior analyst for the South Asia desk with the Wikistrat Analytic Community and contributing author at The Diplomat.
Dr. D’Souza was previously a Fulbright-Nehru Visiting Chair in Public Policy (2024) at the University of Massachusetts (U Mass) , Amherst, USA, where she established an India Lab to deepen knowledge and collaboration between UMass and subject matter experts and universities/think tanks in India by initiating a webinar series and research projects on climate change, geopolitics, and energy transition. She has been a Founding Professor at the Kautilya School of Public Policy at GITAM University, Hyderabad. She has taught courses on “Changing World Order,” “India and the World,” and Global Public Health (co-teaching) and developed course modules at the intersection of public policy with international relations, foreign policy, gender, climate change, and emerging security challenges.
She has been a Visiting Fellow, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP), the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Berlin (March-September 2022), Board Director at Regional Centre for Strategic Studies (RCSS), Colombo (2018-2022); a Non-Resident Scholar at the Middle East Institute, Washington D.C.(202-2025); a member, Board of Studies, School of International & Area Studies, Goa University (2021-24); a Visiting Research Associate at the School of Business & Governance, Murdoch University, Perth, Australia (2017); Research Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore (2010-14); Associate Fellow, Institute for Defence Studies & Analyses, New Delhi (2006-10); Fulbright Fellow and Visiting Research Associate at South Asia Studies, The Paul H Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Washington DC (2005-06). She has been a recipient of Fulbright Fellowship twice.
As Adviser, Independent Directorate of Local Governance (IDLG), Government of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (2015-16); International Election Observer for the audit and recount of Afghanistan’s Presidential Runoff elections (2014); Senior Transition Consultant, United Nations Mine Action Service (2013), Kabul; and External Reviewer for the country programme of Action Aid International, Afghanistan (2011), she has worked with governmental and non-governmental sectors for more than a decade and conducted field-based studies in various provinces of Afghanistan. She has also conducted field research in Pakistan, China, Africa, Australia, Canada, the United States, Jammu and Kashmir, and India’s Northeast.
Dr D’Souza’s research interests and expertise include: Countering terrorism, insurgencies and violent extremism; Armed conflicts, illicit networks and organized crime; Asymmetric and emerging security threats; Women, Peace and Conflict Studies; Prospects for long-term stabilization of Afghanistan; State and Peace building in fragile states; Security Sector Reform; Sub-national governance, electoral observation and downward accountability; International interventions and Post-conflict stabilization; Non-traditional security threats and crisis response in Asia; Organizational restructuring, public-private partnerships, and change management; India’s foreign, maritime, and security policy; prospects for regional cooperation in South and Southeast Asia; Emerging powers, Great power politics and the Indo-Pacific.
Among her most recent published work are edited books titled “Countering insurgencies and violent extremism in South and South East Asia” (Cass Military Studies, Routledge: UK), Afghanistan in Transition: Beyond 2014?, co-edited books, Perspectives on South Asian Security, and Saving Afghanistan. She has guest-edited a special issue on “Countering insurgencies and violent extremism in South Asia” in Small Wars & Insurgencies (UK: Routledge), February 2017. She has contributed chapters to edited books, journal articles, encyclopedias, yearbooks, and regional surveys and op-eds in the media.
She has published in international peer-reviewed journals including Small Wars & Insurgencies (UK: Routledge), Pacific Affairs (The University of British Columbia), Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs (Sage), The Journal of South Asian Development (Sage), South Asian Survey (Sage), Contemporary South Asia (London: Routledge), Strategic Analysis (Routledge), Journal of Defence Studies, Combating Terrorism Exchange (Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, USA), Small Wars Journal, (Small Wars Foundation, Bethesda, USA), Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, (Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University: Washington DC), The Journal of International Security Affairs, No. 20, (Washington D.C.), Welt Trends: Journal for International Politics and Comparative Studies(Germany: University of Potsdam), and others. Her work on Afghanistan and India has been published in The Europa Regional Surveys of the World, Europa World (Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxford: Routledge), and Encyclopedia Britannica.
Dr D’Souza has been interviewed by various media outlets and her opinion pieces have been published in The Wall Street Journal, The Strait Times (Singapore), The Hindu (India), Hindustan Times (India), Indian Express (India), The Business Times (Singapore), Business Standard (India), Fair Observer; Asian Age; Deccan Chronicle; Forbes (IBN Live), The New Statesman (UK), The Hill, The National Interest, NATO Watch, Fergana (Russia), Huffington Post, Rediff, The Star (Malaysia), The Islamic Republic News Agency (Iran), Bloomberg, Eurasia Review, Open Democracy (London), World Affairs Journal (Washington, D.C), Strategic Perspectives(RCSS, Colombo),Control Risks(London), Afghan Zariza (Kabul), Anadolu Agency (Ankara), South Asia Journal, Al-Arabiya (Dubai), Daily News & Analysis ( Mumbai), The Pioneer (Delhi).
She can be reached at shanthiedsouza@miss.org.in and shanthied@gmail.com
She tweets @shanmariet
More bio details are available HERE. Bio Profile
Bibhu Prasad Routray (Director)
Dr Bibhu Prasad Routray is Visiting Faculty and Member of the Research & Advisory Committee, Naval War College, Goa. He held the position of Visiting Professor and Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) chair, India Studies at Murdoch University, Perth between July-December 2017. He served as a Deputy Director in the National Security Council Secretariat, Government of India and Director of the Institute for Conflict Management (ICM)’s Database & Documentation Centre, Guwahati, Assam. He was a Visiting Fellow at the South Asia Programme of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore between 2010 and 2012.
Routray specialises in decision-making, governance, counter-terrorism, force modernisation, intelligence reforms, foreign policy and dissent articulation issues in South and South-East Asia. His writings, based on his projects and extensive field-based research in Indian conflict theatres of the Northeastern states and the left-wing extremism affected areas, have appeared in a wide range of academic as well as policy journals, websites, and magazines. He is the author of National Security Decision Making in India (RSIS, Singapore, 2013)
He can be reached at bibhuroutray@gmail.com
He tweets @BibhuRoutray